Content publication via the Internet is quickly becoming the primary means for distribution of media and information to the public. Content publishers, such as newspapers, magazines, authors, and reporters are now provided with capabilities via the Internet that were never before possible with print media. Significantly, the Internet enables the simultaneous distribution of text, imagery, and video in one medium. Video is a powerful from of media distribution and that drives a tremendous amount of consumer interest. Rather than reading the news, more and more people are watching clips of the events that create the news. In fact, video distribution on the Internet is growing at an exponential pace. For example, the popular www.youtube.com website enables the viral distribution of video content in a way that allows viewers to upload, watch, search, rank, and comment on a virtually unending database of video files.
Despite the widespread availability of video content, online content publishers face significant problems in associating video or moving imagery with written text and/or static images. It is often difficult, time consuming, and costly for an online content publisher to determine which videos from a video library to associate with a particular webpage, portion of a webpage or text within a webpage. Furthermore, as both written content catalogues and video content catalogues are constantly being updated, the process of association between the two becomes a perpetual task.
Therefore, many online content publishers find that they are unable to adequately leverage their video catalog. Specifically, content publishers often find that conventional web development and publication tools and software packages do not permit them to efficiently and effectively publish, display, and associate video content on the webpages throughout their website.
In addition to facing difficulties in publishing their video content, content publishers often face significant problems in attempting to monetize their video catalog. For example, conventional web development tools and software packages do not provide a way to dynamically link advertisers with specific video content. Additionally, many conventional tools do not allow content publishers to sell advertising for a specific instance of the display of a particular video file. Additionally, many conventional tools do not allow content publishers to sell banner ads in association with the display of a particular video file.
Advertisers desire the ability to spend their advertising dollars on consumers interested in topics relevant to their goods or services. For example, a brokerage house, bank, or manufacturer of accounting software may contract with a webpage provider to have an advertisement displayed within a webpage related to stock markets and financial data. The idea according to this approach is that end-users are more likely to “click-through” or otherwise respond to advertisements that are closely related to the content of the webpage.
In another approach, advertisements can be selected for display within a webpage substantially in real time based on demographical information of the particular user who is accessing the webpage. For example, each user may be required to complete a questionnaire, provided via the Internet, as a prerequisite to receiving access to the webpage. Alternatively, a profile may be created for a user based on the user's activities while on-line including, for example, an indication of the webpages visited, how frequently and for how long those webpages are visited, how often the user makes a purchase on-line, and any demographic information the user supplies in the course of visiting websites. Demographic information may also be collected and retained by providers of webpages through the use of “cookies”. The idea according to this approach is that end-users are more likely to “click-through” or otherwise respond to advertisements that are closely related to the user's interests and characteristics. Advertises desire the ability to leverage such user data in connection with the delivery of video footage.
Content publishers desire a tool or application that can enable them to leverage the full capability of their video catalogues. Furthermore, content publishers desire to have the ability to connect advertisers to consumer interest in specific portions of the content publisher's video catalogue. In view of the foregoing, it would be advantageous to provide an improved system and method for video content association.